Donald Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris in the US presidential election on November 5 was a shock to many observers and especially to supporters of the Democrats. What does this mean for US politics? Are the American people turning to the right? How should the left respond?
The Russian Revolution, which took place 107 years ago, stands as the only time in world history that workers took power and began the transition to a socialist mode of production. That shining epoch offers many enduring lessons for today’s revolutionaries — including the Bolsheviks’ reliance on democratic-centralist organization and their intolerance of reformism within their ranks.
This is the conclusion of our two-part series on the upcoming US election. Part one detailed the theoretical and historical reasons why Marxists refuse to support capitalist political parties under any circumstances. Part two tackles some frequently asked questions about our position, especially in light of the threat posed by Trump.
Marxism represents a complete and vigorously materialistic world-view. A complete world-view differs from an eclectic one in that each of its aspects is connected in the closest way with all the others, and therefore one cannot with impunity eliminate one of them and...
My radicalization began with my time in the military. I served 10 years as an army infantryman. The simplest job description for an infantryman is someone who engages in ground combat. I grew up a poor trailer-trash kid from a small town in Wyoming. As soon as I...
Last Sunday, February 25, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old active-duty airman in the United States Air Force, set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington DC, in what he called “an extreme act of protest against the genocide of the Palestinian...
A free Palestine from the river to the sea is the demand that has been taken up by the unprecedented global protest movement in the wake of Israel’s brutal war and genocide in Gaza. Most sincere supporters of the Palestinian cause can understand why the dismantling of...
The current debate in Tempest between Dan La Botz and Stephen R. Shalom on one side, and Jonah ben Avraham and Sean Larson on the other, is an important one for the left. La Botz and Shalom have claimed ben Avraham and Larson are too soft on October 7. The latter have...
Our comrades in Central Ohio Revolutionary Socialists are facing outrageous repression from Ohio State University, who suspended their campus chapter in December on grounds that their activities in support of Palestine “pose a significant risk of substantial harm.”...
In March 2020, several longtime members of the Democratic Socialists of America published an essay entitled “The Dangers of Factionalism in DSA,” warning about the dangers of entryism by organizations such as Socialist Alternative. Using the example of the “French...
In the wake of the events of October 7 and the genocidal aftermath, there is a growing divide on the left between those who unconditionally support the right of Palestinians to fight back against their oppressors, and their critics. Support on the left for resistance...
A political prisoner is typically defined as someone imprisoned for their political activity, or who is imprisoned on an official charge that is sometimes unrelated to their actual activity. While the exact meanings of the term are contested, conventionally it refers...
In October, inmates of the Zionist state’s de facto concentration camp in the Gaza Strip executed a desperate, yet powerfully courageous, escape. The scene shocked the world. Just four years prior, Palestinian protesters had tried week after week for nearly a year to...
The ongoing genocidal annihilation of Gaza and the racist pogroms in the West Bank, both conducted by the Israeli apartheid state with the full support of its imperial sponsor, the United States, have rightfully provoked the rage of tens of millions across the world....
As millions of people around the world flood the streets in support of Palestine and to condemn their governments’ complicity in Israel’s genocide, many are demanding a ceasefire. In New York City, hundreds of brave Jewish protesters occupied the Statue of Liberty...
Palestinians have been under siege, colonial occupation, expulsion, dispossession, oppression and repression for over 75 years. They have resisted Zionism and imperialism for even longer. Much of this resistance has been nonviolent or at most the hurling of rocks. On...
Stop the genocide Israel’s settler-colonial project has again shown its true nature. In retaliation for the new military phase of the Palestinian liberation movement that started on October 7th, the Zionist entity is committing open genocide against Gaza. Israeli...
Repression has always been a problem for people seeking social change. From direct physical attacks by police and vigilantes to the firing and evicting of union activists, the ruling class doesn’t make it easy to challenge their power. Contemporary methods of...
Whenever the “international community” starts talking about Israel’s right to self-defense, Palestinian civilians head to the bomb shelters. Or they would, if they had any — the Israeli government prevents the Gaza Strip from importing the necessary construction...
“We don’t have a mass revolutionary party. If we did, I would join. Once upon a time, a revolutionary vanguard existed. After the defeat of the New Left, the vanguard has to be rebuilt. We need to knit together activists. Without soviets there would have been no...
I want to start off by admitting that I am totally what you might call a “basic girl.” I love overpriced oat milk lattes, and going to Target as a form of therapy. For the past two years in a row, I was in the top .03% of Taylor Swift listeners on Spotify. It’s a...
The starting point for developing a revolutionary Marxist approach to the Niger crisis begins with the recognition that the right to determine who governs Niger and how it is governed belongs to Nigeriens and them alone. This is an especially important lesson of the...
Forging closer ties and meeting new comrades In our first appearance as Firebrand, we brought a contingent of ten, five Denver Communists, two Seattle Revolutionary Socialists, one Greensboro Revolutionary Socialist, and two contacts to the 2023 Socialism Conference....
In Indianapolis on Labor Day last September, a group of about thirty neo-Nazis from an organization called Patriot Front marched downtown. Cosplaying in their faux military garb and carrying shields and colonial-themed US flags, this crew of sad grotesques was easily...